Singapore Press Holdings has launched Personalised Print, which allows readers to publish personalised messages on the front page of The Straits Times, The Business Times, or Lianhe Zaobao.

The exclusive copy will be delivered to the recipient on the actual day of publication with a framed copy of the selected paper, a bouquet of roses and bottle of champagne. Readers can now avail themselves of this service for the introductory price of S$1,000 (A$937), but the standard price will be S$2,000.

Call for Indonesian broadcasters to up entertainment game

Dewi Safitri, the standards and practices specialist for CNN Indonesia, has called for Indonesian TV broadcasters to vastly improve their entertainment programming. In an op-ed in the Jakarta Post, she wrote: “After the widespread influence of Latin American soap operas in the 1990s, Indonesian TV screens were later filled with Korean, Turkish or Indian film serials.

“Meanwhile, local soap operas (popularly known as sinetron) attracted neither talent nor innovation and steadily lost captive fans…the Indonesian TV industry has stagnated for many years.”

GMA News TV moves up in the ratings in the Philippines

Philippines broadcaster GMA News TV has tied with TV5 for the third-most watched slot for free TV for the period of July 24 to October 15, based on data Nielsen TV Audience Measurement. GMA News TV is co-owned and operated by GMA Network and its affiliate Zoe Broadcasting Network which is owned by Bro Eddie Villanueva, founder of the the worldwide Jesus is Lord Church.

The Myanmar Media Club officially launched last Friday in Yangon, holding its first social session and issuing an ultra-long press release that in part said: “The MMC’s wider goal, as an NGO, is to help develop and support the advancement of journalism and media in Myanmar by bringing those interested in Myanmar’s media together as an inclusive community.”

The presser said the club was formed by a network of independent journalists and media professionals and added, “The founding members of the club have intentionally remained anonymous, in order to develop the MMC as a media community as opposed to a formal structured or hierarchal organisation.”

In turn AsiaMX has partnered with Thai ad company Dentsu Agis Network.

Art Kaneearch Dandumrongsuk from ThaiTV3 will head AsiaMX’s Thai office. The Bangkok Postreported that Thailand is the first country in Asia to use AsiaMX’s programmatic TV advertising platform in the digital TV industry.

AsiaMX also revealed that next year it plans to expand into Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Korea’s Naver in partnership to fund content startups

South Korea’s top portal operator Naver has partnered with SoftBank Ventures Korea, the venture capital arm of Japanese telecom giant SoftBank, to set up a 50 billion won (A$56.7m) investment fund to nurture promising media content startups.

The SB Next Innovation Fund will be set up under the partnership to invest early in local firms that possess standout services or technologies linked to media content such as webtoons, videos and mobile games, as well as content platform.

Naver will provide 40b won for the new fund while SoftBank Ventures Korea will pay in 4.5b won and Korea Venture Investment Corp 500m won.

The remaining 5b won will come from foreign investors.

HK Free Press annual report shows depth of support

The Hong Kong Free Press released its annual report for 2016, reporting that in its first 15 months it served 14.5 million web pages, notched up 55,000 Facebook fans and 33,700 Twitter fans, and published over 5,700 news and comment items.

In 2015, 1,000 supporters donated over HK$1 million (A$170,600.) Between February 28 and December 31 2015, its income was HK$804,000, with $59,000 coming from ads and events and the remainder from donations.

Singapore Media Festival kicks off next week

The Singapore Media Festival kicks off on November 23 and runs until December 9.

Highlights include the Singapore International Film Festival (Nov 23-Dec 4), The 20th anniversary of the Asian Television Awards (December 1-2) and the Asia TV Forum and Market on (December 6-9).

Screen Singapore (December 7-9) will be an avenue for filmmakers, producers, distributors, donors, and film buyers to seek joint production and funding opportunities. Screen Singapore will showcase the Southeast Asian Film Financing Project Market, connecting filmmakers with investors and partners to co-produce films.

Singapore becomes regional media hub

Singapore now claims to be the Asian centre for the media industry. More than 7,000 media companies have set up a head office or branch offices there, and 14 out of 15 global communications service companies have opened regional offices in Singapore.

As Asia Pacific’s content-production centre, Singapore is the second home to the world’s media, hosting offices for companies such as ESPN, Discovery Asia, BBC World and Walt Disney Television. Namco Bandai and Ubisoft also have a presence, as do digital media giants such as Lucasfilm and Double Negative.